FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Tony L. Potucek]

One of the most prolific and world renown Arizona USA mineral locations has long needed to be updated--the mineral collecting history of the 79 Mine.
The former base metal mine has produced specimens, some magnificent, since the 1960's, when it shut down. The Mineralogical Record published Stan Keith's article on the 79 Mine in 1972, and Wendell Wilson added a folio on the 79 Mine in the same issue of the magazine. Any collector who went to the 79 Mine to collect used Keith's and Wilson's articles to guide their collecting, and that issue was considered the 79 bible. While there were minor notes published here and there over the decades, there really was no concerted effort to publish a comprehensive article on this venerable mine and all of the beautiful secondary Pb-Zn-Cu minerals produced by collectors, until now. Jordi has kindly allowed the Mineral Forum to be used so I could publish The Mineral Collecting History of the 79 Mine, Gila County, Arizona.

I hope you enjoy it.

Tony Potucek

[Tony L. Potucek]

This type of 'magazine’ display that we often use in this section does not allow photos to be enlarged by clicking the mouse on them. The solution to enlarge the screen is to use the keys: Ctrl + mouse wheel. By turning the wheel and holding the Ctrl (Control) key we can enlarge the image at will.

[Jordi Fabre]

On the Spanish side of FMF a few months ago we managed to get certain sections (two at this time) of the Spanish FMF to be admitted by the International Standard Serial Number. This is the reason why everything we upload in those two sections Yacimientos Minerales en FMF and Ciencias de la Tierra automatically has a common registration number at the ISSN and therefore acts like any other magazine or book published, with the same legal rights and corresponding indexing.

As its name indicates the ISSN is an international registry, so, it covers publications not only in Spanish but also in, for example, English 😏
That is why we have published this excellent work of Tony's there with a short bilingual introduction and keeping the article as prepared by Tony in English.

From now on, any other quality and well-structured work such as Tony's published in this Forum can be reviewed by the administrators and if we believe that it helps to improve the mineral world, we will publish it in Yacimientos Minerales en FMF or in Ciencias de la Tierra and will thereby become an "ISSN publication".

[yowanni]

Wonderful article Tony!
Thanks you for sharing it with us, we really appreciate it.
Best regards

[James Catmur]

Fantastic. Thank you

[Peter Van Hout]

Great historical article Tony! Thanks for sharing it on this site.

Peter Van Hout

[Tony L. Potucek]

Thank you both. It was a labor of love for me. It was one of the great places to collect in the Southwest USA.

[SWK]

Tony, thanks for this really interesting article. Nice that you could use several of my pics .... all the best, Stephan

[Firmo Espinar]

Hi Tony.

Great summer reading and nice photographs.

Thank you.

[Steve Maslansky]

Pard-

Another great article, thanks for sharing.

[Tobi]

Thank you so much, Tony, a wonderful article!

[Chris Rayburn]

Wonderfully written and detailed, Tony. Thanks for contributing this!

[Tony L. Potucek]

Your photos enriched the quality of the article, Stephan. Thank you for allowing me to use them.

tlp

[Tony L. Potucek]

Thanks to all of you for your compliments and I'm glad the mineral collecting community likes the history of this venerable and great collecting location. For those of us who got the chance to dig there, the 79 Mine has so many colorful and aesthetic species in association with one another.

tlp

[bob kerr]

T - it was a pleasure to read your article on the 79. I have so many excellent memories of collecting and working there. It's a true AZ classic locality. A few nostalgic memories follow and I've attached a few other cool specimen photos that I hope the FMF world will enjoy.

- after mucking and mining all day, dinner and drinks around the campfire with a few (maybe quite a few) drinks was totally called for. John was a master at coming up with incredible tasty meals. One big regret is that we have no recordings of the philosophical discussion we had as I am certain that most all the world's problems were solved therein.

- I had a bright red sleeping bag that caused me to take drastic actions. First thing in the morning every hummingbird within sight of the mine would visit me and buzz right over my head. The little birds were so annoying that I had to set up my cot just inside the mine in order to get some sleep - although I never knew when morning had broken.

- one day I wheeled 76 loads of muck from the wulfenite stope to a chute down to the 5th level where Mitchell Dale was loading the ore cart to dump the muck further down the shaft to the sulfide zone. When we surfaced Mitchell asked George if he could keep some muck samples and George said sure. Mitchell then produced one of the nicest cabinet sized green smithsonite vugs I'd ever seen. The vug had protected the specimen so it was in great shape - He made out well that day.

I have so many other great memories but that's enough for now.

Many thanks for the yeoman's effort to put this together.

bob

[John Cornish]

With respect to Tony and Jordi... Thank you both so very much for this truly exceptional contribution!

To Jordi for hosting this work, and to Tony most of all, for taking the time to physically put pen to page, to share these wonderful stories!!!

What an exciting time we live in that we are all blessed by such a wonderful contribution as this! On purpose, I chose to read this in only small sections, savoring this report, as all too soon, disappointedly, I realized that I'd be reaching its end!

Soooo many localities have stories that have been shared (and countless more as yet await their time of recognition) and yet from this unique perspective of first and second-hand discovery and recovery from those whose sweat and blood were expended to recover these incredibly rare and spectacular crystalline treasures, this is such a welcome component to see so prominently featured in this work that more than any other, at least for me, this breathes a LIFE and MAGIC into this work that I applaud all the louder especially in recognition of its omission from so many other contemporary works.

For me, obviously, I am thrilled and inspired by this exceptional prize, this paper, as it celebrates this most satisfying and enriching component so well, it celebrates the collectors and those rarest of moments when fortune smiles and one discovers TREASURE!

Bravo!!!

Thank you. Sincerely,

John

[Jonesey]

Thanks Tony.....A great work ! Lots of memories reclaimed from the muck of time !
I've just now have read it, I didn't know it was out until now.

[Tony L. Potucek]

Thank you, Casey! For all of us who had the opportunities to dig the 79 Mine and other great producers in the SW USA, it was an exceptional time and most prolific in what we found!

[Peter]

Absolutely fabulous article and photographs!
Great many thanks Tony!
Peter

[Tony L. Potucek]

You are more than welcome, Peter! I am glad you enjoyed the article. I look forward to seeing you at a future show and perhaps the rolling bar!